The invention relates to a carton produced for packaging a plurality of articles, for example, bottles. More particularly, the invention relates to a carton, which attaches to the tops of the articles thereby securing the articles in an array.
It is known to provide top gripping cartons which comprise so called “sunburst” apertures having a series of circumferentially arranged tabs which enable a bottle top to pass through the aperture which tabs engage on the underside of a bottle top or on the flange of a bottle neck to prevent the removal of the bottle from the aperture. A problem arises when such sunburst type apertures are used for bottles sealed using so called “crown corks”. In this case, the location in which the tab engages on the underside of the bottle top is by its location high up the bottleneck, which creates a carton that is unstable.
Further, the tabs are weakened by the unstable nature of the bottles within the carton so reducing its effectiveness.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,722,945 there is shown a carton with a top panel comprising retaining tabs to support the upper part of an article contained in the carton.
Another example is illustrated in EP 98918290.2 in which there is shown a carton of the top gripping type for accommodating a plurality of containers, for example, bottles, which carton is tubular in structure and comprises a first panel having a plurality of apertures, each has at least one foldable tab which operatively engages the underside of a radially protruding part of a container present in the aperture and a second panel spaced from the first panel and comprising a retaining tab struck from said second panel, said retaining tab comprising a main portion and a shoulder portion wherein an edge of said shoulder portion also operatively engages the underside of said radially protruding part to restrict movement of said second panel relative to upper portions of the container, said main portion being disposed between a pair of adjacent containers to minimize relative movement between those containers.
One problem with this approach is that a complicated folding arrangement is required to fold the retaining tabs.
A further problem associated with the prior art is that a top-gripping carton needs to be of sufficient strength to support the bottles. A rigid structure would address this problem but produces its own difficulties. In particular, the top panel and/or base panel does not provide requisite rigidity and sufficient strength to support the bottles.
The present invention and its preferred embodiments seek to overcome the difficulties of the prior art by forming a box structure in which both the top and base are engaged on the bottle flanges and which is simple to construct. Additional support is provided to maintain the top and base panels in a spaced arrangement while additional strength is provided by multi-layering the panels. Therefore, the board can be reduced in thickness without reducing the strength needed to hold the bottles.